It is unbelievable how much time it took to fill out the customs forms. The first lady said - Oh, this won't do - you've got to list each clothing item individually, and each bottle of nonprescription meds individually, etc., etc. For this box, that meant the meds for him and for another person, knit hats, a man's suit, scarves, socks, and little girls' outfits.
The socks were the ONLY thing I could find that was made in America, to send to three ladies that I met last summer. The other items for their gifts were made elsewhere, but you can only do as much as you can do. The hats were knitted by the sewing group who made them especially for Chinese believers.
It took me three forms to complete the required listing (you can only list four items on each form), and each form had to have the complete addresses of both sender and recipient written out. In triplicate. Those Chinese addresses, even when transliterated into English words, are long. And involved. I have no idea if the forms were correct at the end, but figure that once the box gets to China, they'll use the Chinese characters that are also on the label I printed out.
Then, after getting it all done, a different lady helped me. She took one look at all I had written out and said "Oh, you didn't have to do all that. All you had to do was write "New clothing items." Aargh!!!
Anyway, the forms are filled out, the box is gone, and my debit account is lighter. I love you, son!!
1 comment:
Our church in SC used to send nice-sized Christmas boxes to our missionaries until the P.O. eliminated the surface rate and started sending everything by air mail - then it got exorbitantly expensive, so we went to just sending cash to them or their accounts. More efficient but missing the personal element. I didn't miss the customs forms, though! Most of the time the people at the P.O. I went to didn't check on them except to make sure all the blanks were filled in, thankfully.
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